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Human Action

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Human Action is the magnum opus of Ludwig von Mises, first published in 1949. It defined a large part of present Austrian Economics.

Contents

Introduction

"It is true that economics is a theoretical science and as such abstains from any judgment of value. It is not its task to tell people what ends they should aim at. It is a science of the means to be applied for the attainment of ends chosen, not, to be sure, a science of the choosing of ends. Ultimate decisions, the valuations and the choosing of ends, are beyond the scope of any science. Science never tells a man how he should act; it merely shows how a man must act if he wants to attain definite ends."[1]

Part One: Human Action

  1. Acting Man
  2. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action
  3. Economics and the Revolt Against Reason
  4. A First Analysis of the Category of Action
  5. Time
  6. Uncertainty
  7. Action Within the World

Part Two: Actions Within the Framework of Society

  1. Human Society
  2. The Role of Ideas
  3. Exchange Within Society

Part Three: Economic Calculation

  1. Valuation Without Calculation
  2. The Sphere of Economic Calculation
  3. Monetary Calculation as a Tool of Action

Part Four: Catallactics or Economics of the Market Society

  1. The Market
  2. Prices
  3. Indirect Exchange
  4. Action in the Passing of Time
    5. For humans considering action, time matters: there is a too late and a too early. Time preferences affect all action.[2] We create capital goods with longer production cycles to fill our future wants--that is, we wait. The discussion of time preference, and the postponment of consumption, is a lead in to interest.
  5. Interest
  6. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle
  7. Work and Wages
  8. The Nonhuman Original Factors of Production
  9. The Data of the Market
  10. Harmony and Conflict of Interests

Part Five: Social Cooperation Without a Market

  1. The Imaginary Construction of a Socialist Society
  2. The Impossibility of Economic Calculation Under Socialism

Part Six: The Hampered Market Economy

  1. The Government and the Market
  2. Interference by Taxation
  3. Restriction of Production
  4. Interference with the Structure of Prices
  5. Currency and Credit Manipulation
  6. Confiscation and Redistribution
  7. Syndicalism and Corporativism
  8. The Economics of War
  9. The Welfare Principle Versus the Market Principle
  10. The Crisis of Interventionism

Part Seven: The Place of Economics in Society

  1. The Nondescript Character of Economics
  2. The Place of Economics in Learning
  3. Economics and the Essential Problems of Human Existence

References

  1. ↑ Ludwig von Mises. Introduction, 3. Introduction, Human Action, online version, referenced 2011-02-05.
  2. ↑ Ludwig von Mises. XVIII. Action in the Passing of Time, 2. Time Preference as an Essential Requisite of Action, Human Action, online version, referenced 2011-02-04.

Links

The Mises Store has these related items for sale:
-Human Action (Scholar's Edition)

See also: Human Action Comics
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